Turba literally means crowd in Latin. It may refer more specifically to any text in the biblical Passion of Jesus which is spoken by any group of people, including the disciples, the Jews, or the soldiers. In musical settings it has been broadened to refer to any direct address in the Passion, except the words of Jesus.
The term was further used during the Sandinista regime of Nicaragua in the late 1970s and 1980s, referring to crowds of boisterous, sometimes violent supporters.